Ring of Empowerment

Once upon a time, the Guardians of the Universe were not as they are now.

When the first decided to battle injustice throughout the universe, the knew they couldn't be everywhere so they deployed a race of androids known as the Manhunters giving them the power of the Green light. They programmed these sentient androids with their values and sent them out to do justice. This being science fiction, this naturally turned disastrous as the Manhunters were too zealous and relentless in their pursuits, applying uniform values across the universe without empathy.

The Guardians ultimately scrapped this project and opting instead to find living beings throughout the universe possessing sufficient virtues and empowering them to do good where they were. This iteration, the Green Lantern Corps, isn't perfect but certainly proved more effective. The empowered living beings generally understood the circumstances of their local civilizations better than the Guardians could be expected to, making their judgement superior and their application of power more efficient in addressing their needs and threats.

We can learn some lessons from this example, the first being never be afraid to reexamine and retool your processes.

But this story has some specific applications in to our project. The Council of Lanterns history parallels that of the Guardians. We wanted to recruit, train and control a uniform body of likeminded individuals to be our "army" of justice. This insular approach alienated us to many of the existing Lanterns Corps, ultimately to all of them.

So we let go of control and decided to instead focus on supporting and empowering existing Lantern Corps, helping promote exchange and sharing to provide a benefit so that we could all better achieve our common goals.

We should go still further. At the end of the day, we're still promoting justice in Second Life as group sharing a common culture and environment trying to bring justice to many and diverse corners of this metaverse that we may have little experience with or understanding of. True, we can ameliorate this issue by plugging into these communities. That's a laudable and rewarding approach that broadens us, but its not something we can expect of every Lantern or in every community.

Therefore, we should also consider doing what the Guardians did, finding people of character within these communities and empowering them to help their own and bring a more positive Second Life experience to them. Unlike with the Guardians, this empowerment doesn't come from a power ring or costume, but knowledge. In a realm built entirely from information, the right knowledge is literally power. The knowledge the superhero community has collected empowers us and it can easily empower others.

In this way, our influence can spread and a broader exchange of culture and ideas could empower us all.

Eh, you guys figure it out. I'm done sermonizing tonight.

I swear, I'm going to right an article in reaction to "When ideas have sex" next time. Its just such a good video. It deserves a better reaction than the one I have the energy for tonight.